The New Reserve Bank Governor, Dr Lowe and new deputy governor Guy Debelle will face their first appearance in their new roles at the House of Representatives Economics Committee on Thursday in Sydney.
Their appearance is likely to be less involved than some previous appearances by the previous Governor, Glenn Stevens, and Dr Lowe who was then the deputy.
Apart from the September board meeting minutes out later today, the RBA has not made many statements about the economy, apart from the one last week from the bank’s Assistant Governor (Dr Chris Kent) who revealed a more sanguine view of the economy’s current position.
The RBA’s 2015-16 annual report has yet to be released (it is due very soon), the bank’s second Financial Stability Review is not due till early next month, and the latest monetary policy statement is not out until November.
The point of interest for discussion is likely to be the new memorandum of understanding between the Federal Government and the Reserve Bank that enshrines its central goal of keeping inflation in a 2% to 3% over time.
The bank and the Federal Treasurer, Scott Morrison announced the new agreement yesterday.
In the conference, Mr Morrison said he had agreed with new RBA governor Philip Lowe that no major changes were needed to the agreement.
There have been some calls for the inflation target range to be lifted, either lowered or raised, or for the central bank to target nominal economic growth instead. That is likely to be discussed on Thursday. But the solid growth in the past three quarters has seen those calls become muted.
The agreement with the government calls for RBA policy to ensure a stable currency, maintain full employment and contribute to the economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia.
Dr Lowe took over from Glenn Stevens, who retired at the weekend after 10 years in the top central bank role. Dr Debelle took over from Dr Lowe as deputy at the same time.
"The governor and I agree that now is not the time to be making any major exchanges in the composition of this statement nor is it the time to engage in any monetary policy setting experiments," Mr Morrison told reporters in Sydney.
But Mr Morrison said there was no reason to move way from a target that had served the economy well for some two decades. The Reserve Bank will continue to chair the council of financial regulators, which also includes Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Treasury.
Judging by Dr Kent’s comments last week,the RBA will continue to maintain a wait and hold monetary policy for the rest of the year and into 2017.
Dr Kent chairs his first board meeting on November 1 (which is also Melbourne Cup day).
